Configuring the carbon farmer: Emerging practices of carbon accounting and biochar engagements in Danish agriculture

To address climate change, governments and corporations are increasingly turning to carbon dioxide removal (CDR). This invites us to revisit the concept of carbon accounting, as new carbon subjects emerge, being positioned by surrounding society as both “guilty” individuals and potential carbon removal providers. Employing the concepts of carbon subjects and user configuration, this chapter explores how Danish farmers are configured as “carbon farmers” through the introduction of biochar as a carbon removal method in Denmark. Based on participatory observation, field visits and semi-structured interviews, it interrogates how farmers imagine and are imagined engaging with biochar. It suggests that the configurations of the carbon farmers require both new farming and carbon accounting practices. Due to a narrow focus on technology, attention to new farming practices is often neglected or postponed, while emerging carbon accounting practices generate diverging expectations about the allocation of carbon removal. As a result, removed carbon may be claimed twice, which makes climate mitigation efforts seem larger than they are. I argue that biochar serves as a “technical adjustment,” where actors in and around the agricultural sector demonstrate willingness to take on new roles and practices to make the overall agro-industrial production model stay the same.